项目介绍

2024年4月17日

Function

The Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) Group welcomes applicants for a fully salaried PhD position (4Y). The PhD student will be able to design their own research project on the broad topic of ‘contested landscapes’ combining insights from political ecology and anthropology.

Background information
Political ecologists highlight how industrial-capitalism, and its view of nature as separate from humanity, threaten the viability of life on the planet and disproportionately affect people and populations with long histories of colonial exploitation and violence. Anthropologists often reaffirm these findings. However, they also demonstrate possibilities for (everyday) resistance including the adaptability of longstanding, often environmentally more sustainable socio-ecological, economic and cultural practices and values.

Drawing on these complementary debates in political ecology and anthropology, this
project seeks to develop new empirical and conceptual insights into how diverse historically contested landscapes enable, hinder and more broadly, create possibilities for diverse and sustainable human-environment relations. Landscapes are conceptually and
empirically intriguing because they materialize the diversity of human-
nature relations. They shape, and are shaped by, how people and environments
experience and (en)counter colonialism, wars, large-scale development projects, and
even increased digitization. Simultaneously, they shape and are shaped by how, if at
all, diverse peoples seek to maintain a sense of autonomy within global and localized
inequalities.

Research subject/ area
We are looking for a candidate who will combine historical and ethnographic research methods, focussing on a remote, rural landscape that has long been sites of industrial-capitalist exploitation and violence – but also (everyday) resistance.

The broader theoretical scope and geographical focus have been left open deliberately. We are looking for a candidate who brings their own research idea and interests to this project which will also be situated in a comparative dialogue with the daily supervisors’ own long-term field research in the African Great Lakes Region (Dr. Esther Marijnen) and the Large Ocean States of the Pacific (Dr. Stephanie Hobbis). We advise potential candidates to look at the daily supervisors’ research profiles, and see how their own research proposal would link to their research interest.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• conceptualizing and developing a personalized PhD project embedded in political ecology and anthropology;
• setting up and carrying out extended ethnographic fieldwork;
• setting up and completing a PhD dissertation within four years;
• authoring and co-authoring publications with other team members;
• participating in conferences, workshops, seminars and other scholarly activities;
• being an active member of the Sociology and Development and Change Group and the Section Space, Place and Society (participating in group activities, meetings, and seminars).

You will work here
This team is embedded in the chair group of Sociology of Development and Change led by Prof. Bram Büscher, and the Section Space, Place and Society. Your daily supervisors will be Dr Esther Marijnen and Dr Stephanie Hobbis

Function Requirements

You are:

• a dedicated, curious researcher who has a critical mindset and wishes to build a deeper understanding of debates in political ecology and anthropology
• willing to nurture these qualities further over the course of the project, including how these could serve you in a further career in academia or beyond after the PhD.

You also possess:

• completed (Research) Master’s Degree in anthropology, conflict studies, environmental history or related field;
• demonstrated passion and aptitude for research;
• proven experience with ethnographic and other qualitative research methods,
• affinity with topics related to political ecology, human-nature relations, political economy, political anthropology
• excellent writing skills and broader proficiency in English;
• willingness to learn the language of the proposed field-site (if not already acquired);
• affinity with teaching, possibly already some experience (e.g. as student assistant)
• interest in being part of and contributing to a lively, caring and engaging academic environment.

For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here

Contactinformation

For more information about this position, please contact Esther Marijnen, esther.marijnen@wur.nl and Stephanie Hobbis, stephanie.hobbis@wur.nl
For more information about the procedure, please contact Noorien Abbas, corporate recruiter, by email: recruitment.ssg@wur.nl.